Chef Eric LeVine, a winner on the television show "Chopped," is coming to the Montclair Public Library on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

For Chef Eric LeVine, food is the food of love.

"Food brings people closer together. It's one of those things that becomes ethereal. You don't have to speak. It's almost like a kiss. You don't have to talk," LeVine told The Montclair Times.

The energetic chef, whose motto is "Fire It Up!" and who won "Chopped" on The Food Network in 2011, is coming to the Montclair Public Library, 50 South Fullerton Ave., to cook and talk about his new book "Small Bites Big Flavor" on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m.

Levine, who is consulting chef and partner at the Morris Tap & Grill in Randolph, spoke to The Times by telephone from the airport where he was en route to Toronto to do a Super Bowl show. He's much in demand these days: he appeared on Fox last week to demonstrate his recipes for the Super Bowl. He's a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, and has been honored by The James Beard Foundation and The International Chefs Association.

On Tuesday, you can expect to learn how to make one or two of LeVine's recipes, and hear some insight about their creation. But don't expect to hear any big revelations about "Chopped."

It's all real, the chef said. No, the contestants don't know what's in the baskets ahead of time. But the surprise ingredients weren't the hardest thing about being on the show. The hardest thing was dealing with the cameras, he said. "There were two or three cameras on each person. It's a challenge, when you're trying to run back and forth, and have these cameras in your face. It's the most annoying, and fun part of it. If you knock down a camera guy, you win," he said with a laugh.

From an early age, LeVine associated food with love, too. "My grandma had the best hugs in the entire universe. She always made something awesome. It could be as simple as tea, or her honey cake. There's actually a recipe for that in my cookbook, which is dedicated to my grandma. I wrote the book for people, to go in the kitchen and bring the family back together. Growing up as a kid, the kitchen was a place where nothing else mattered. You felt love from whoever was in there with you," he said.

LeVine began cooking at age 6, when he made a chocolate mousse that wound up on the ceiling. "It was an 'aha' moment," he recalled. "I thought, 'I can piss my dad off, and it's fun and cool!' My first cookbook was a Disney cookbook. It was all I ever thought about." He got his first professional job at age 11, he said.

Each recipe in the book has a story. "Grandma was a rock star," said the chef with reverence.

But anyone can cook, LeVine said. "I think it's part of who we are, human nature."

Even when eating something raw, someone might wonder how to alter it and change it, he said.